So I’m spending the week in Brisbane doing both some contract work and also some meeting with various businesses and Government people, all talking about FOSS 🙂 It has worked out really well because I had lunch with some of the people from the QLD Government and will probably be back to Brisbane chatting to more Govvies about FOSS. The way I see it, we should be taking any opportunity to chat to people about how FOSS can be relevant to them. Not why it is important to us 🙂 but rather thinking through how FOSS can help that individual in their work and play, and put it in their context. This is an invaluable approach in getting the message out there.
So of course seeing I don’t get to Brisbane often I based my trip around when HUMBUG is running, so here I am chatting away to some HUMBUGers 🙂 I love visiting the different LUGs and seeing what they are up to and how they are going. Anyway, off to Spain on Monday for the Open Source World Conference which will rock!
I’ve really realised the importance of not only educating the public but also educating the Open Source industry about how to better market themselves and their capability. I’ve also after many discussions, particularly with Government people realised the need for good vendor-neutral advice, because although the vendors are a great source of information about their products, they are not getting the even-handed Open Source message out particularly well. I’m hoping the ASK-OSS reference centre for information about Open Source that I’m working on will help with this a challenge.